Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Neither the Rangers nor the Flyers held a morning skate today prior to tonight’s Game 7 at Madison Square Garden, which is logical since the Flyers’ 5-2 win in Game 6 was than 24 hours earlier.

But Chris Kreider did go on the ice by himself (with some mini orange cones set up on the lines to mark his skating lanes. Kreider, recovering to surgery to his left hand, showed some signs of practice as he continued to mainly concentrate on conditioning skating. He did stickhandle some and even took some (very) soft shots. Obviously, he’s not ready to return to the lineup but perhaps it’s not a stretch to suggest he’d make at some point in the second round if the Rangers advance with a win tonight to face the Penguins.

And in order to advance, coach Alain Vigneault made it very clear what needed to happen.

“I think it’s fair to say that whoever’s top players perform the best is probably the team that is going to win this game,” Vigneault said. “We’ve got some good players.”

Specifically on two of them:
- Rick Nash, without a goal in the series: “Rick is trying his best right now. He’s looking for holes. He’s protecting the puck. He got a couple of good looks last night. Nothing he can do a bout the first six (games). He’s got to focus on tonight.
- Ryan McDonagh, scoreless and off defensively as well, not looking like the player he was before injuring his left shoulder: “He’s obviously been our best defensemen all year. He’s played some good hockey so far in this series but I do believe that there’s another level. He needs to find that tonight for us.”

As for the power play, Vigneault simply said, “Execute,” while both Brad Richards and Marty St. Louis talked about having poise. Richards said there were times in in the 5-2 Game 6 loss that the point men on the power play, him included, where, “we just pressed too hard and we were shooting pucks when the other four guys were expecting a set up and when we wanted a set up, the other four guys were expecting a shot. I think we gripped it a little too tight and make it all happen in the first 30 seconds of a power play instead of being patient.”

Richards also offered this eloquent description of what Game 7 is like for players: “There’s no other feeling in your life that’s going to duplicate what a day like this is and what it means when you win, especially on home ice in Game 7. There’s no other way you can think about it or try to do something recreational. But to do it in front of your home crowd in Game 7, how important it is. These opportunities only come around so often and that’s what we mean by embracing it. There’s going to be someday when this whole team is retired and sitting back and wishing we had another day like this where you can get ready for a big game in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden in a must-win game. This is the greatest thing about what we do.”
======================================================
Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AGrossRecord
Follow the Record Sports Staff at twitter.com/TheRecordSports

About

ANDREW GROSS covers the New York Rangers for The Record and Herald News, having joined the North Jersey Media Group in November 2007. Gross also covered the Rangers and New York Jets, as well as St. John’s basketball and Army football, for Gannett Newspapers and The Journal News (N.Y.). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a degree in newspaper journalism.